In today’s article, we will take a closer look at how to identify the most profitable niches.
Affiliate marketing begins and ends with finding the right niche to market to. It’s quite simple, really. Find a hotbed of buying activity and plant yourself firmly there to market as many compelling products as possible to a very active market of potential customers.
It has worked for hundreds of sellers who have become very, very rich. But, let’s face it, when you’re just starting out, nothing is that easy.
So I want to dig into the idea of niche research, along with the mistakes many of us tend to make over and over again. Because, when you can eliminate those mistakes, life becomes so much easier and profits are more consistent.
Niche research No-Nos
First, let’s take a closer look at what so many beginning affiliate marketers do wrong. At the top of the list, and something I’ve been preaching against for years, is diversification. Of the super affiliates I’ve met, the vast majority (pretty much all of them, including me), make their profits almost entirely from one or two niches.
Yes, that’s right, that’s exactly what it sounds like. They spend hours a day working on just dog training, or just marriage counseling, or just weight loss. They find a profitable audience and contact them over and over again with different products, sites and outlets.
Second, as you may have guessed, they stuck to the big niches, the evergreen ones that have always been solid money makers. Sure, they do experiment a bit, but just enough to look at other niches, not so much that they dilute their income from one or two big niches. What niches are considered the “big niches”?
Weight loss, make money, satellite TV on pc, gain muscle, self help, anti-spyware, forex and money online. People are always looking for new products in these niches, so you can’t cannibalize your sales or run out of leads. Of those niches, weight loss and fitness are the most important across the board, with making money coming in second.
Find your niches and products
Of course, simply saying “try what works” isn’t very helpful, so I want to go into more detail about what you can promote and how to make your selection. Lucky for you, I have a couple of methods I like to use that have always been very successful for me.
When it comes to finding product ideas, I usually stick to ClickBank and Amazon. On occasion I will also use Google to further review potential affiliate networks.
Amazon.com Research
Let’s start with Amazon.com. I start here because I first want to find a niche that has a large buyer base. You can always find a product on Clickbank with high gravity, but even before that I want to identify the breadth of a potential audience first. You’ll see why very soon.
To get started, visit Amazon.com and start reviewing products and topics in niches that interest you. This is very important, because you will spend a lot of time investing in that niche, especially if it becomes one of your two big niches.
So make sure it’s something you’re willing to write about and market extensively in the coming months. If you don’t care about losing weight or are afraid of dogs, those may not be the best paths to success.
With that in mind, start searching Amazon for books, products, and other niche products. Your goal here is to find products with at least 20 reviews. Why only 20 reviews?
Considering the fact that Amazon estimates that only 1 in 1,000 people actually review something they buy on their site, it’s likely that a product with 20 reviews would have been purchased by at least 20,000 people; That’s a huge market, especially if it’s just one product in a niche information.
If you can find multiple products in the same niche that have more than 20 niches, you have hit the jackpot. It doesn’t matter if the niche has 100 products or only 2; if there are people buying products, it is a good niche. You don’t need to do any keyword research, competitor research, or product searches, because you know you’ve found a good one.
Moving to ClickBank
With that in mind, it’s time to find a product that you can actually market to. In general, I don’t recommend promoting physical products on Amazon. With only a 5% commission (to start with), you’d only make $1 on a $20 book, and most Amazon products have massive markdowns, so the earning potential is limited for information products.
If you come across a high-value product in a niche like ‘solar power kits’ or ‘home stereo’, you might rethink it, because you can earn over $15 per sale. Generally speaking though, you should never choose a niche where your minimum commission per sale is less than $15. That should be your magic number.
So, with that magic number in mind, we take a tour of ClickBank, the number one affiliate network on the Internet, where marketers like you and me sell information products for commissions of up to 75%. A single $20 book on ClickBank will net you $10-$15 in profit, much better for the time you put into it.
As for finding a niche product on ClickBank, go to the Marketplace ( [http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace.htm] ) and search for the product niche you’ve already identified on Amazon.com.
For the most popular information niches (the main niches we discussed at the beginning of the newsletter), you’ll find dozens of products. I recommend sticking to these main niches because they have more options and have proven conversion rates. Seasonal and specialty niches require more work and are difficult to focus on long term.
Look for a $ per sale of at least $15. Ideally, you’ll get even more than this: more than $30 or more per sale. Also, look for a gravity of at least 30. Gravity represents how many affiliates have successfully sold that product in the last few weeks.
The higher the number, the better the conversion and the more space there is in the market for you to join. Later, you’ll need to check out competing sites to make sure you can find a place for your own websites, but for now, just identify the niche.
Going to Google
Of course, ClickBank isn’t the only affiliate marketplace and if you find a product on Amazon that isn’t listed on Clickbank, you still have other options. Go to Google and search for “NICHE Affiliate Program”.
Many times, other networks will appear with many options. A great profit opportunity here would be on CPA networks that offer non-informational product opportunities with high profit potential.
understanding it
There is no right answer for the niche you choose to work in. But, if you’re remotely serious about being successful and becoming the next big super affiliate, you need to identify a rich and perennial niche that can be requested time and time again for profit without boring you to tears.
Do that, and you’ll be well on your way to a successful marketing plan.
With that marketing plan in mind, it’s time to start building sites and funneling traffic to your new affiliate marketing empire.